Golf
Superb finish ensures cut for Tvesa and Vani at Irish Open
Faced with the prospect of missing the cut with four holes to go, India’s Tvesa Malik (69) and Vani Kapoor (70) moved into a different gear to safely get into the weekend at the KPMG Women’s Irish Open.
At 2-under each for 36 holes, both, Tvesa (73-69) and Vani (72-70), getting ready for the Hero Women’s Indian Open next month, were T-42.
The cut fell at one-under-par with 63 players making it through to the weekend.
Playing together, Tvesa was 1-over and Vani was 2-over with just four holes to go and the cut looked likely at 1-under. Coming off a disappointing bogey each on the 14th, Tvesa and Vani birdied the 15th.
Then on Par-5 16th, Tvesa birdied yet again but Vani went one better by landing an eagle. Then as Tvesa parred the Par-3 17th, Vani picked another birdie. On the closing par-5 18th, Tvesa picked a birdie and Vani parred and both were well inside the cutline, which duly fell at 1-under.
However, Diksha Dagar (72-75) and Amandeep Drall (74-80) had a disappointing week as they missed the cut.
Sweden’s Moa Folke fired an exceptional round of 10-under 62 and led by two strokes at the halfway stage.
It was a sensational day for the 27-year-old Swede who started with a birdie on the first and then added another on the third. Then came three more in a row from sixth through to the eighth to make the turn in 5-under 30.
-PTI
Shubhankar misses cut, Rasmus Hojgaard leads
Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma tried hard to rally back and did manage three birdies against one bogey in the second round for a 2-under 69 but still missed the cut at the Cazoo Open de France at Le Golf National.
Sharma, who started 2022 with a runner-up finish at the Rolex Series event, the Abu Dhabi Championships, has now missed 12 cuts in the last 15 starts since the Steyn City Championship in March.
He was T-2 (Abu Dhabi) and T-13 (Kenya) in two of the first three DP World Tour starts at the beginning of the year, but has since then lost form. He did make the cut in his Asian Tour appearance in Singapore in this period.
Rasmus Højgaard opened up a six-shot lead at the halfway point of the Cazoo Open de France after the gifted Dane added a six under par 65 to his stunning opening 62 at Le Golf National to reach a record 15 under total.
-PTI
TENNIS
Asian junior championship: Manas, Shruti crowned champion
Manas Dhamne and Shruti Ahlawat were crowned the Asia-Oceania junior champions in the ITF B1 tennis tournament organised by the MSLTA at the Deccan Gymkhana Club on Saturday.
Manas, a trainee of the renowned coach Riccardo Piatti in Italy, beat compatriot Aryan Shah 7-6(4), 6-4 in the final.
It was another milestone in the fledgling career for Manas, as he has already started competing in the men’s Challenger and ITF events.
Second seed Shruti Ahlawat beat Lily Taylor of Australia 6-1, 6-4 for the girl’s title. As if, it was not enough, the Adkar sisters, Asmi and Vaishnavi, playing the event on a wild card, saved three match points to beat the Aussies Lily Fairclough and Zara Larke 4-6, 7-5, [11-9] for the girls doubles title.
It was a rare clean sweep for the host as Yuvan Nandal and Rushil Khosla had earlier won the boy’s doubles title.
The results (finals)
-Kamesh Srinivasan
Jeevan in doubles final in Portugal
Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan in partnership with Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia beat Henrique Rocha and Daniel Rodrigues 7-5, 6-4 to reach the doubles final of the €45,730 Challenger tennis tournament in Portugal.
In the Challenger in Romania, Ramkumar Ramanathan had made the doubles semifinals with Luca Margaroli of Switzerland.
The results
-Kamesh Srinivasan
SHOOTING
Junior men’s trap team wins gold in Shotgun World Championship
India won a sensational gold in the junior men's trap team event at the ISSF Shotgun World Championship, beating Italy 6-4 in the final on Saturday.
This was also India's first medal in the Championship. The USA won the bronze.
It was no mean feat for the trio of Shapath Bharadwaj, Shardul Vihan and Arya Vansh Tyagi as the Italians are long-established powerhouses in the shotgun discipline.
Even more so as the Indians were trailing the Italian team of Edoardo Antonioli, Emanuele Iezzi and Gianmarco Barletta 0-4 before staging a remarkable comeback.
Earlier in the day, Shapath, Shardul and Arya Vansh had shot a combined 205 in the qualification stage, where each member shot three rounds of 25 targets each, to finish second behind the Italians who shot 206, thereby making it to the gold medal match.
Nothing came easy for the Indians on the day as they tied with team USA on the same score and then beat them 2-0 in a shoot-off to ensure a medal for themselves.
In the final, all three Indians missed a target each in the first 15-shot shoot-off. The winner of each shoot-off is awarded two points, and the first to six wins.
The Italians missed two and took the first two points. Luck kept eluding the Indians till the second shoot-off, where they missed two out of 15, only to find the Italians missing just one to take the round and go 4-0 up.
The Indians came back to win the third 13-12 to make the score 4-2. Arya Vansh shot a second consecutive perfect five to lead India's fightback.
For the Italians, it was Edoardo Antonioli who was doing the star turn with three perfect fives, and he eventually did not miss in the final to finish with five perfect fives.
It got even better for the Indians as they shot a perfect 15 in the fourth shoot-out and Emanuele Iezzi missed the 13th target to help India draw level at 4-4.
Gianmarco Barletta then missed his first target in the fifth shoot-out and India went ahead 6-5, forcing the Italians into a time-out. That did not help, as Iezzi missed the first shot after it and the Indians marched along for a 9-7 lead. They had not missed 24 straight targets.
India made that 26 before Vihan missed the 27th, but they were still ahead 11-9. The Italians finished strong, getting all three of their last birds, but the Indians were equal to it, closing out 14-12 with Arya Vansh shooting four straight fives and an overall 24 out of 25 targets.
In the junior trap team event, the Indian trio of Preeti Rajak, Sabeera Haris and Aadya Tripathi could not make much headway, bowing out in the qualification stage with a combined effort of 172. They finished seventh.
-PTI
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